Kliptown, a town we forgot
I drive through Kliptown everyday when coming to work, it's literally five minutes drive from my place. Yet like many of my fellow South Africans I know very little about it, apart from it being home of the Soweto Hotel and Congress of the People (please note I'm not talking about the COPE based in Braamfontein) which saw the declaration and adoption of the Freedom charter.
To most people in my hood, Kliptown is an area for coloureds, Bolalu. Stupid really, considering the fact that the Congress of the people was formed by the ANC, South African Indian Congress , South African Congress of Democrats and the Coloured Peoples' Congress. So the area has a rich multicultural history.
But what captured me the most about Kliptown is the close nit community that resides here. Visiting Sky (Soweto Kliptown Youth), a youth centre that provides services to neglected children in the area, I got a real feeling of Botho, otherwise known as Ubuntu. The centre offers a library, a crche and three meals a day to kids. Here are a people helping each other to survive a life of poverty. A community that has so much more to offer to Gauteng than its historical importance, South African's can visit this place to see, feel and adopt a real spirit of multiracial tolerance and harmony.
I mean I saw white people walking around freely in a swatter camp like they were in Melville.
Enough said this is the most interesting short left I've ever taken, well actually a long left from Old Potch road, but it was worth it. So take one too, you wont regret it...
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